As they walked into the next room, it started as almost serene. Stain glassed windows showing the natural beauty of Dracon. However as they continued down they noticed the only light was from these windows, and they started to change, showing scenes of women in coffles, the auction block, slave girls being whipped, slave girls being used by groups of Masters.  Monica shuddered as she looked at them.



Suddenly a light emerged from the end of the hallway, making the girls jump in their skin. "Oh my god." Maria gasped at the sight. There mannequins stared at the three girls their eyes glowing red. In the center of the room a poor coed, she looked latina, was ballgagged and strapped to a rack. Two men kept whipping her belly and thighs raw with the bullwhip.



"Agghhieeemmmphhh!" She screamed at each last, sobbing.



The girl covered her mouth. "Oh my gosh." Lauren muttered. "I knew that these aren't actors. They're really slaves- but- but..."



"Just means we have to be even more careful." Monica muttered. The men didn't even pay any attention to the three girls. Instead they just continued to whip the poor latina coed. She was likely another one who tried to make it through the haunted house but failed, and now served as a warning to unnerve the other women who tried. All the girls could do was walk past them, and unnerve them it did. Monica could see that her brown body was beyond red where she was being whipped, a pretty girl no doubt, and very fit. Her belly almost had seemed to be whipped to the point in bleeding in some areas!



But they couldn't do anything for her, they could only move into the next room which seemed to consist of a fake cornmaze. A redhead with giggling laughter was in the center of the room. The only sense of direction the three girls had. Occasionally members of the haunted house wearing costumes would jump out from the corn, terrifying them. But no attempt at capture was made. Everything just seemed to be designed to put the girls on edge, and Monica also noticed the men would jump at them whenever the sounds of tickling stopped and the sound of a battery being turned on came. Screams from the redhead would replace her laughter, an electric current running through her body as people lunged at the three girls as they made their way through the maze.



"I think its this way." Maria said her heart pounding. Finally they reached what appeared to be the exit to the next room. The room looked to be based on a aztec or olmec style. "I think this is the door, but its closed." Maria muttered.



"Theres a plaque." Lauren said. She started to read aloud. "There are three sets of armor of the ancient warriors before you. Step in and pull down the handles. One will open the door, one shall have only silence, and one will lead to subjugation." She looked up nervously.



They paused for a moment. "These props look familar." Monica muttered. There were wooden handles on what appeared to be cheap suit of armor props. A place to stand as you pulled them down. "They remind me of a 90s game show."



Maria sighed. "This is insane." She muttered. "We're in a haunted house and." She took a breath. "I can barely breathe. Did you see what they were doing to those poor girls! What we saw on the video screen! And thats just how they'll torture us if we're caught. That doesn't even get into how much they want to 'enjoy' us! The guards when my mother dropped me off talked about how they'd strip me down and what hole they would take." She grimaced in both disgust and fear at this point.



Lauren nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Its just." She sighed. "Dracon heard about my college's club, sent a representative and said if we actually cared about the poor slaves they owned then one of us should take this challenge, put our actual skin in the game." She crossed her arms. "I knew what they were doing, we all did, but the guilt ate away at me and now here I am."



Monica nodded. "My story isn't too different, its just I wasn't part of a club." She said honestly, remembering the Draconian representative that came to her campus.



Maria sighed. "I agree about the horrors of Draconian slavery." Maria said. "The reason Im here though is more foolish." She muttered. "I like to chat, look things up, and I discovered a list of the most extreme haunted houses around. Told my mother about it. And, well, over time she seemed more and more interested in this. Said it would be a good challenge for me. Could be fun she said! Can free a slave she said!" Maria sighed. "So she signed me up and then told me about it once Dracon started vetting me. I was stunned but she somehow convinced me. Maybe I figure Dracon wouldn't take me, but they did."



Monica was surprised. "Mother.  I take it you're not in college yet?  She said.



Maria nodded. "Yeah." She said plainly. "Texas High, play softball out there." She said with a shrug. "I do charity too, its just, well, nothing Ive done seemed as impactful an opportunity as this. Guess thats how they lure us in." She said with a disgusted chuckle.



Lauren was surprised. "Im just stunned they took you. Reason Im here is Im a member of our abolitionist club, and well, I did lead my high school abolitionist club last year, wouldn't surprise me if they were aware of me from my social media postings."



Maria genuinely laughed at this. "Like Dracon cares." She said shaking her head. "I'm old enough, you think Dracon cares that Im still applying for scholarships?  No.  The only difference was that even though I was old enough for this they still wanted to do everything through my Mother. They were insistent on that part." She said, a little bit of confusion in her voice.  She sighed and walked up to the suits of armor. "And now we're at our first real risk." She muttered.



Monica nodded. "Yes, only one is opening the door I presume. And another one probably does nothing."



"And one leads to slavery!" Maria replied. She paused. "We cant go back, the guy at the front said that. So."



"So we have to go forward." Monica said. She stepped into the suit of armor, turning around and facing the two girls so she could pull down the handles. She paused, expecting to be captured. But, nothing happen. "Well, they did say that one would do nothing. Ill try the next one."



"No." Maria muttered. "You took a risk Monica. Its my turn." She stepped into the middle one. "Dont worry, Im sure this is the right one." She said her legs and arms trembling as she pulled down the handles. "Did it-mmmmmphhh!" Suddenly hands shot out from behind the prop, punching out blocks of the wood designed to fall away. Muscular arms wrapped around Maria's sexy belly, holding her in placing and rubbing her smooth skin as the other hand gagged her. "Nooommmmpheesss!" Maria screamed, her eyes in terror.



"Maria!" Lauren yelled running up and grabbing Maria's arms. But shackles had emerged from the handles, sealing her in place. The prop started to move back. "Maria hold on!" She said as the prop pulled back into another room. The door to the prop started to fall down. Monica ran over as well, desperately pulling at the shackles, but they were made of steel. All the girls knew Maria was doomed, but they tried to save her anyways.



"Noomphessss! Phhesssmmphh! Sammmphmeeephhh! Phhessmphnooommphhheeellmmmphphes! Phhessmmmphhdddonnnphmmmphh!" Maria screamed in abject horror, fighting like a rabid animal to get free.

Pure terror and horror in her eyes as she realize what was happening. Pleading, praying, begging for a reprieve from this fate even as she and all the other girls knew there would be none. She knew what awaited her now, and screamed because of it. The door was closing, and Lauren and Monica had no choice but to step back as Maria wailed and scream. "Mmmmphhhhh!"



Lauren stepped back, sobbing as the door sealed shut, the poor senorita on the other side. Now just a slave. "Oh Maria." Lauren said sobbing. She stepped into the next suit, pulling it down, the door opened. On the other side looked like what was arranged as an old alleyway.



A voice came over. "I have a riddle for you. When you hunt the turkey, is it safer for the turkey to be in the front, or at the end?" Monica and Lauren looked at each other, confused. Their bodies trembling from what they just seen. Knowing full well Maria was already being brutally stripped and manhandled by her captors.

“Well… I guess I’ll go first”, Monica said hesitantly. She looked into Lauren’s eyes and smiled a little, trying to offer some reassurance, but wasn’t entirely sure if she was successful in that endeavor. She kept trying to figure out the cryptic phrase uttered by that disembodied voice. Was it a riddle? If so, they were doomed; Monica simply didn’t possess the kind of energy or creative brainpower needed to deconstruct thought puzzles like that. But finally, she took the plunge and began her journey through the next room.



The length of the room was probably less than fifty yards, but felt much longer, with the threat of something jumping out of the shadows and grabbing her ever present. Two brick buildings sat between the path. One thing was for sure though: it definitely smelled like an alley. A dumpster and some aluminum cans she passed seemed to contain real trash, with flies buzzing about them. The glow of floodlights provided a few sparse patches of illumination, with moths gathering around them obsessively. She was fairly certain that she saw a rat skitter past her. In spite of everything occurring around her, she couldn’t help but think of Jurassic Park.



But eventually, she did reach the door. She waved to Lauren and gave her a “come hither” gesture. Lauren nervously stepped forward and began her journey forward. Monica heightened her awareness so she could warn the girl if danger presented itself. Lauren did a fast walk, trying to span the distance as quickly as she could. But at about the halfway point, something tripped her and she fell forward. Monica was so puzzled by what could have caused her to fall that she didn’t notice the dark figure sneak up behind Lauren until it was too late. She was about to cry out to warn her when the shape slapped a piece of duct tape over her mouth from behind. The figure grabbed Lauren’s wrists, forcing them behind her, and began to drag her away. Monica sprang into action and ran toward her. Lauren squirmed helplessly in her assailant’s grasp, whining desperately behind the tape on her mouth as he dragged her away. Monica genuinely believed that it was too late to save her, but Lauren managed to elbow the shape in the gut and escaped its grasp. Lauren dashed toward Monica, wincing as she ripped the tape from her mouth, and breathed in short, rapid gasps. Monica ran past her to investigate where the shape had gone, but it was nowhere to be seen. It had simply vanished.



They passed through the next door, a heavy, metal one that had chipped paint. It opened up onto a dark room with some very dim light emerging from a source Monica couldn’t detect. Scattered about the floor were crude drawings of women in various states of bondage. A few Barbie dolls were laid atop a small table. They had been tied up with red yarn, and small pieces of masking tape had been placed over their mouths. If this had been a normal haunted house attraction, Monica would’ve found this stuff laughable. They looked like props from a bad episode of Criminal Minds. But whatever hackneyed qualities they may have had were lost in light of their present circumstances. Someone was trying to frighten them into submission and it was working. Though the worst was still to come. They entered the door into the next room.



Unlike the last few chambers, this one had more light than either Monica or Lauren would have liked. It was a place for audiences to gather to see these torture sessions take place. Behind four separate panes of glass were women in states of bondage were being tormented, caressed against their will, or worse. The tiled floor made the place feel like an operating theater. The two women dashed through the room as quickly as they could, but the glimpses gathered from their peripheral vision did more than enough to terrify them. One woman was strapped to an X-frame, gagged with clear packing tape, and was being cropped in the stomach by a black hooded assailant. Another woman was on her knees, arms bound up in an arm binder, and a man who seemed to be making eager preparations for something she really, really did not want to see. They reached the door and at first it just wouldn’t budge. It was so heavy, and the screams of agony were more than either woman could bear. Finally, the door gave and made a huge scraping noise across the floor. They dashed through as soon as there was an opening and pushed it shut. The noises of the torture theater were mostly gone now.



Both girls were out of breath by this point. It took Monica a moment to notice that there was little out of the ordinary about this room. It was lit by overhead fluorescent lights and had a potted plant in the corner. It could’ve been an office if she didn’t know any better. And then Lauren’s eyes grew large.



“Water!” she gasped. There was a water cooler at the opposite side of the room. She dashed across the room and Monica joined her shortly thereafter. She grabbed a paper cup from the dispenser and pressed the lever on the spout, making that pleasant glug-glug sound. Monica filled her cup and took a swig; it felt blessedly cool in her throat. She was refilling her cup when Lauren dropped her water and cupped her hands over her mouth.



“Oh, Jesus…” Lauren said, her voice breaking. Monica looked to see what had caught her gaze. Piled on the floor were Maria’s clothes.